CNIPM Monthly Teleconference Notes
February2, 2011
General Meeting 9AM-10AM
Board Meeting 10AM-11AM
Call in number: 907-271-1405
Teleconference Leader: Lindsey Flagstad
General Meeting
Start: 9:00 am
Roll Call
Southeast
David Lendrum - UAS, Juneau
Dana White – IPC, Juneau
Genelle Winter – Metlakatla Indian Community, Metlakatla
MariaCrowl-Pointer – Alaska Garden Club Invasive Plant Chairman
Interior
Catherine Hadley - NRCS, Delta Junction
Darcy Etcheverry - AACD, Fairbanks
Trish Wurtz - USFS, Fairbanks
Katie Spellman – UAF, Fairbanks
Blaine Spellman – AACD, Fairbanks
Ryan Lane – BLM, Fairbanks
Brett Nelson - DOT, Fairbanks
Southcentral
Blythe Brown – Kodiak SWCD, Kodiak
Michelle Martin - Kenai Watershed Forum, Soldotna
Lindsey Flagstad - AKNHP, Anchorage (meeting moderator)
Helen Klein - AKNHP, Anchorage
Ashley Grant - CES, Anchorage
Bonnie Million - NPS, Anchorage
Gino Graziano - DNRPMC, Palmer
Rob DeVelice - USFS, Anchorage
Calvin Steele – NRCS, Palmer
Laurie Thorpe – BLM, Anchorage
Round Robin
Southeast
David Lendrum– attended the Alaska Greenhouse and Nursery Conference in Anchorage (January 26-27), Gino and David are interested in meeting with suppliers and the Greenhouse and Nursery council to identify species that could be used as alternatives to invasive speciesin landscaping and gardening.
Dana White –is pursuing various grants and funding avenues to create a permanent position addressing invasive plant issues in Juneau
Genelle Winter - might get approval for GPS training for two people in Portland, OR; is working with La Donna Carlisle(BIA)to present tribal interests at the National Invasive Species Awareness Week in Washington, DC (Feb. 28-March 4), recently participated in a phone conference with Lindsey Schwem about weed issues in Ketchikan
MariaCrowl-Pointer – requested that helpful information be sent to her for posting on our new Invasive Plants link on the Alaska Garden Club website, developed byCarol Norquist,president of theAlaska Garden Club. Their new website tovarious non-native plant resources, please send her appropriate links or material, , 907-617-5852
Interior
Catherine Hadley–no updates
Darcy Etcheverry – The Elodeasteering committee met in January and each steering committee member is working towards plans for the summer. Darcy submitted a pre-proposal to the ‘bring back the natives’ program with the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation for Elodea survey & control. The next Elodea Steering Committee meeting scheduled forFebruary 15th 10am, there is a possibility that this will be a conference call.
Trish Wurtz – Several members of the Elodea working group met at the FWS Fairbanks office yesterday. There were presentations on what the group has been doing so far, and in what areas we need help. It went well and the FWS now has a better understanding of what the problems are and how they can be involved. A public hearing regarding herbicide permit applications by the Alaska Railroad to spray along portions of their track will be held February 22nd, 4:30-6:30pm at the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge.
Katie Spellman – recently publisheda paper on invasive plant curricula in secondary education in the National Science Magazine, she will provide the paper to AKNHP and CNIPM to post on their websites. Katie gave the keynote address at the Invasive PlantCouncil of British Columbia Annual Conference, (Vancouver, BC, January 18-20). Standout items from the conference included: Weeds and Roads project, BMP for contractors, the concept of pre-conference workshops with a regional scale focusandpost-conference workshops concentrating on local efforts,rapid prototyping.Crystal Wheeler, with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure expressed interest in presenting at the 2011 CNIPM conference; she is in contact with Gino and Ashley. The Invasive Plant Council of BC is using bio-mass energy to power their (offices?). Employees of the Invasive Plant Council (?) suggested that CNIPM could adopt to non-profit structure.
Blaine Spellman –recently working onthree separate permits for use of herbicides in DOT right of ways. Process is not as bad as he expected; Blaine offered to help anyone who anticipates having to apply for such a permit.
Ryan Lane –working to convene a Dalton cooperative weed management area; met last month with multiple agencies, all agreed on the need for a CWMA. Ryan is now in the process of draftinga memorandum of understanding and invitinginterested parties to become involved.
Brett Nelson – no updates
Southcentral
Blythe Brown - Kodiak Island Borough is looking for a new gravel site and a Tribal Corp. recently received approval for a new rock site. Kodiak will be hosting the State Envirothon which will include an invasive plant station; SaraPersselin (Kodiak IPC) has been developing the test. KodiakSWCD is working with Katie on holding a teachers workshop and Gary Freitag is scheduled to give a talk on marine invasives for the Kodiak Area Marine Science Symposium.
Michelle Martin– Kenai CWMA isworking with John Morton of the Kenai Wildlife Refuge and others to create a weed management prioritization plan. The plan is based on watershed delineations and concentrates on reed canary grass infestations.
Lindsey Flagstad– introduced Helen Klein who will be working as a Research Technician for AKNHP, discussed the Weed Ranking Project and the meeting later today to review preliminary ranks of approximately 10 species, should have more than 50 ranked by spring, mentioned that the AKEPIC website and mapper should be launched within the next two weeks.
Ashley Grant– is developing treatment plans for infestations within the Anchorage and the BLM’s Campbell Tract. Per usual, Ashley has made several presentations in the last month.
Bonnie Million– would like to hold a conference call for the EDRR subcommittee sometime in early march; she will be circulating a doodle poll to solicit stories of EDRR accomplishments in Alaska.
Gino Graziano – likes the BMP roadside packages developed by the BC Invasive PlantCouncil; discussed House Bill 97, which proposes removal of a sunset date to AS 03.05.027 which authorizes a state weed/pest coordinator with the DNR. The Draft Strategic Plan for Invasive Weeds and Agricultural Pest Management, is open for public review, the document can be accessed here: Gino gave a presentation on weed-free gravel to the Alaska Miners Association and the Rock Products Association. Gino reiterated the statewide need for certified weed-free straw; e.g. DOT is requesting weed free wattles, e.g. someone in the valley has a machine for making wattles; CNIPM weed-free forage subcommittee needs to set up times for certification. Gino is working on a proposal to the Alaska Coastal ManagementProgramto incorporate an invasive species checklist into the coastal project questionnaire, which facilitates permitting process for construction project in the coastal zone; he may need letters of support once proposal is drafted.A member of the Western
States Garden Club approached Gino at the Alaska Greenhouse and Nursery Conference to write and article for the newsletter about interesting invasive species issues in Alaska. He will prepare the article for Maria Pointer later this month.
Rob DeVelice– was contacted by University of British Columbia researcher Greg O’Neil regarding site selection for an assisted migration adaption trial (AMAT). There are currently 48 sites in the Pacific Northwest and Yukon. Trials are concerned with adaptations on climate change and involve transplanting non-native trees in an experimental plantation, approximately 15 tree species (5 non-native to Alaska, some native but hybrids), five acres plus a buffer are required, 2012 is the last year for establishing sites.O’Neil wants to establish a site in the Southcentral Maritime region, preferably Haines but possibly Chugach NF. Rob and other were concerned with the amount of site preparation required and the potential for escape of non-natives.
Calvin Steele –recommended theExperimental Farm/PMC in Palmer for AMAT site locations as an alternative to Haines.
Laurie Thorpe - working on: NEPA documents for various projects involving BLM lands, implementing the new BLM invasive species plan, and development of cooperative agreements with AKNHP for both 2011 and 2012. Funding for cooperative agreements comes in part from the National Youth Initiative, thus shemay get funding to incorporate youth (<26 years old)as interns with AKNHP. She is also working on a proposal to provide a wood fiber product (heavier than straw) for use as bedding material on Iditarod. Suggested that development of a biomass product for use as bedding material, for soil stabilization etc. would be a good inter-agency project. Laurie mentioned that Bud Cribley is BLM’s new state director.
3) Open Floor - No discussion.
Adjourned: 10:15 am
Board Meeting
Start: 10:20 am
Roll Call
Board Members in Attendance:
Blaine Spellman, Chair
Ashley Grant, Vice Chair
Lindsey Flagstad (meeting moderator)
Darcy Etcheverry
Brett Nelson
David Lendrum
Catherine Hadley – Ex Officio
Bonnie Million – Ex Officio
Rob DeVelice – Ex Officio
Board Members Absent:
Paul Krabacher – Ex Officio (conflict with mandatory meeting)
General Attendees:
Helen Klein – AKNHP
GinoGraziano – DNR, PMC
2011 CNIPM Conference Planning
Ashley- favors moving tables to sides of rooms for breakout sessions because of time constraints. If we decide to have the venue partition the room, everyone will have to leave and a bagged lunch would be provided.
Darcy- sent out a draft conference schedule during general meeting.
Katie –talked more about the rapid prototyping exercise she participated in at the BC Invasive Plant Council Conference. Prototyping could focus on early detection rapid response methods and could be held as a pre-conference session (evening or afternoon),however it is important to mix it up so attendees don’t just sit through speakers all day. Katie explained that in Vancouver the facilitator and four panel speakers were stationed at the front of the room. The exercise began with panel speakers introducing the topic (2 minutes). The introduction was followed by a brainstorming session with speakers circulating between tables (20 minutes), brainstorming was followed by a share session. After a short break the group switched to new topic and repeated the process (with table switching after each break). This exercise involved approximately 150 attendees and lasted from 10am to 3pm.
Gino –will talk to DEC early to set up continuing education unit (CEU) credits for the plant ID session.
Lindsey –would like to have each subcommittee head come up with a topic/question for the rapid prototyping.
Catherine –thought offering a CEU (to satisfy either professional development or pest management requirements) for certified crop advisors and certified professional agronomist would boost attendance from these groups.
Potential Keynote speakers:
Bonnie will contact-
- Roger Shelly (founding member of Invasive Plant Management, now a weed ecologist with the USDA OR, gives a good‘big picture’invasive pest management talk)
- Richard Lee (IMP specialist with the BLM)
- Steve Dewey (currently retired, herbicide specialist)
Gino will contact-
- Janet Clarke (formally director for the Center for Invasive Plant Management in Montana, gives a motivational talk)
- Ann Ferguson (APHIS, bio-control specialist)
Darcy will contact-
- Brian Maupin (Homer IPC, had professor at WSU involved with the biocontrol of thistle)
Ashley will contact-
- Crystal Wheeler (Invasive Plant Council of BC, gives talk on weeds and roads)
Other items discussed:
Can we cover travel expenses for speakers? Funds could be drawn from registration, however it is important to keep this as low as possible.
Could we have a trained facilitator? The facilitator from the Alaska Sealife Center (Bonnie will get more information on this woman from Howard Ferren) was mentioned, as well as NRCS staff, several of which have had training. Katiehas also completed classes in facilitating. Consensus was that we need to find the funds before pursuing a facilitator.
Workshops/breakout sessions should focus on:
1) weed identification
2) control methods
3) outreach/networking
Blaine- is interested in fostering art created for invasive plant awareness, will contact the Fairbanks Art Council, could also request commissioned work from professional artists, Milo is working with Chad Carpenter creator of Tundra Comics on invasive plant awareness, Lindsey could ask Kathy Sarns of Alaska License Plate fame.
Subcommittee News and Discussion
Updates on activities of each subcommittee
- Bonnie - EDDR subcommittee, no activity since release of weed identification booklet, conference call tentatively scheduled for March 3rd
- Lindsey- will hold an AKEPICsubcommittee meeting following upload of 2010 data and website launch
- Darcy - Weed-free Forage subcommittee, will work on gettingcertifier training scheduled
- Blaine - Public Relations subcommittee, the recently drafted letter of support for House Bill 97 is now in the House, and will continue to move through to the finance committee.
- Brett - Gravel subcommittee, presented to theAlaska Miners Association and the Rock Products Association on January 14th, planning for coming year, no summary yet
- Ashley - Education subcommittee, has been talking to Katie about next steps to hold a workshop
- Rob- Research, Monitoring and Grants subcommittee, no activity
- Catherine- Greenhouse and Nursery subcommittee,no activity
In advance of next meeting, the board will try to:
- Contact speakers
- Develop topicsby subcommittee for rapid prototyping exercise
Open Floor
Adjourned: 11:05 am
Ashleyis next meeting lead and the date is March 2, 2011
Teleconference Leader Dates:
March 2nd, 2011 – Ashley Grant
April 6th, 2011 – Paul Krabacher
May 4th, 2011 – David Lendrum
June 1st, 2011 – Bonnie Million
July 6th, 2011 – Brett Nelson
August 3rd, 2011 – Blaine Spellman
September 7th, 2011 – Catherine Hadley
October 5th, 2011 – Darcy Etcheverry
November 2nd, 2011 – Rob DeVelice
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